photo chemistry poll ( color and b/w and alt process and ? )

every handful of years i do a poll to see what people do with their photo waste
its about that time ...

but instead of just fixer, what do you do with the rest of your photo waste that
might be "out there"

color, b/w, alt process-stuff

please keep nasty comments to yourself
i left one site a few months ago
after being threatened when answering questions about silver recovery ...
if you have questions for me about that, feel free to pm me
i'd be happy to give you ideas or suggestions.

Yea usually diluted and down the drain. I don't use anything toxic like selenium. Been having a lull so I haven't been using much of any chemicals at all. Just a few rolls with diluted hc110, xtol, and d76. Color I've been sending out.

depends on the chemical. some I neutralize. before down the drain.

I voted other. I keep spent fixer and anything nasty and take it to a toxic dump that holds special days for household products about 4 times a year. Other stuff that is not nasty goes down the drain.

"Now, for the metals. This group has received the greatest attention from regulatory agencies concerned with water purity. Why? Because certain compounds of silver, that basic constituent of photographic products, are highly toxic to most aquatic life (silver nitrate and silver chloride, for example). In normal black-and-white and color processes, however, unwanted silver is removed from film and paper by hypo (sodium or ammonium thiosulfate), which forms stable, soluble, and relatively non-toxic silver thiosulfate complex compounds. These complexes, which are converted into very stable silver sulfide, interfere in no way with biological waste treatment systems, including home septic tanks. The silver sulfide, in turn, accumulates in waste sludge, causing no ill effects when the sludge is eventually used for soil enrichment." [Emphasis by Ken.]

— Pollution Solution, Popular Photography, October 1989, p.53

Recall that the preservation reason one sepia-tones one's b&w prints is to convert the raw silver into the same highly inert silver sulfide. So unless and until I am convinced otherwise beyond the above oft-cited advice, down the drain and into a twin 750-gallon tank septic system for spent fixer.

And if longevity is any kind of anecdotally significant indicator, my first 15+ years of doing so have shown absolutely no harm whatsoever.

Ken

I voted "other". I'm not sure if I should have voted "waste hauler" but I take my waste to the household hazardous waste drop off in Chicago.

Neal Wydra

ken:
kodak published that in their j300 pamphlet for a long time
and in the 1990s recanted the whole thing.
the link to kodak &c have been posted here in the past.

Please repost the withdrawal from Kodak.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Down the drain for developers, Stop bath gets mixed with baking soda and then goes down the drain. Fix is collected in jugs and taken to the region's hazardous waste collection point. wash water goes into the drain.
I've not been doing any color, but if I did, the bleach would get treated as the fixer does.

The quantities are pretty low;

For my film I use a replenishment scheme so only about 30ml goes down the drain in any single processing session.
My print developer is long lived and is stored protected from air between printing sessions. I process in a Nova so I dump 1.8L every couple of weeks if I am active, much longer than that if not. (the developer gets topped-up periodically to compensate for carry-over). I monitor the PH of the stop and only mix fresh if it's spent.

Liquidol from the Formulary and created by PE, works very well for this, but tends to get warm (in tone) as it ages.
I am currently using Moersch Neutral, which is almost as long-lived but stays more neutral in tone.
There is also the Ansco 130 formula which lasts forever.

Everything except fixer and selenium toner goes down the drain. Developers are so dilute they cause zero problem, same with stop bath. I stopped using color chems years ago. My spent fixer gets poured into a slop bucket with a piece of wool steel to evaporate, selenium toner gets replenished and filtered.

jnanian said:

every handful of years i do a poll to see what people do with their photo waste
its about that time ...

but instead of just fixer, what do you do with the rest of your photo waste that
might be "out there"

color, b/w, alt process-stuff

please keep nasty comments to yourself
i left one site a few months ago
after being threatened when answering questions about silver recovery ...
if you have questions for me about that, feel free to pm me
i'd be happy to give you ideas or suggestions.

Click to expand...

So, it seems most people pour it down the drain,which is sad ,consideringthat so many communities have toxic waste drop-offs now.On the other hand, the quantities are small, the toxidity relatively lowand dilution is often the solution to polution. At the end f the day,everyone has to live with their choice but please consider a ocal drop-off point to keep our hobby from getting a bad reputation and the world beautiful for the next generation to photograph.many photographers have also been leading con sevationists for this very reason;AA to name one.

I do like that in the US you seem to have local "hazmat disposal" or "toxic material dropoff" locations.

Do you have to pay for these?

I've never heard of one here in the UK.

The closest thing would be the local recycling centre, where I suspect if I pitched up with a 5 litre bottle full of used dichromate bleach, let alone a bit of fixer, I'd be greeted with puzzlement and told to "stick it over there with the paint mate". .

The only other thing are commercial waste management companies, who simply aren't interested in private users and our miniscule amounts of toxic or hazardous waste. No profit in it for them, see?

rbultman said:

Please repost the withdrawal from Kodak.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

AK-3 March 2005

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/ak3/ak3.pdf

page 7:

• Properly dispose of photographic processing chemicals in accordance with local sewer discharge regulations.
Kodak does not recommend the use of septic systems for disposal of photographic processing chemicals •

pdeeh said:

I do like that in the US you seem to have local "hazmat disposal" or "toxic material dropoff" locations.

Do you have to pay for these?

I've never heard of one here in the UK.

The closest thing would be the local recycling centre, where I suspect if I pitched up with a 5 litre bottle full of used dichromate bleach, let alone a bit of fixer, I'd be greeted with puzzlement and told to "stick it over there with the paint mate". .

The only other thing are commercial waste management companies, who simply aren't interested in private users and our miniscule amounts of toxic or hazardous waste. No profit in it for them, see?

Click to expand...

hi pdeeh

yup, they are free ... you have to label what is in the bucket and that is pretty much it ( the ones near me at least .. )
its the same drop off sort of thing for olde paint, household-- toxic cleaners, fluorescent bulbs, lead batteries and other "fun stuff"
do you have a mini lab near you ?
sometimes a mini lab will have a waste dispoal situation set up and
they might be willing to take your waste from you if you pay them a little bit of money ..

My local minilab is 100m away ...

And since I started processing my own c41 18 months ago, I doubt they've so much as switched on their noritsu ... They just do digital.

Maybe I could ask them to scan my spent fixer ?

Color and black and white developers go down the drain. Fixers and blix I save for hazardous waste collection (which I missed this year -- so if anyone wants to relieve me of them to reclaim the silver, PM me).

Down the drain. With the small volumes I produce, the volume of the city's sewerage system will dilute my photographic waste to undetectable levels.

Down the drain and waste hauler. Hypo to the silver extraction and the remainder to the waste hauler. Another unscientific poll.

I usually put hc110 down the drain then wait foe my final rinse of 10min and run water down the drain with it for further dilution of the chemistry

jnanian said:

ken:
kodak published that in their j300 pamphlet for a long time
and in the 1990s recanted the whole thing.
the link to kodak &c have been posted here in the past.

Click to expand...

jnanian said:

AK-3 March 2005

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/ak3/ak3.pdf

page 7:

• Properly dispose of photographic processing chemicals in accordance with local sewer discharge regulations.
Kodak does not recommend the use of septic systems for disposal of photographic processing chemicals •

Click to expand...

The critical path environmental issue is not the evolving publications. It's the chemistry. The highly inert characteristic of silver sulfide does not change every time the lawyer's opinions change. It's a permanently fixed property. It's just as harmless today, both in a toned print and in a septic tank, as it was in 1989, independent of a legal department's changing advice.

Now if one lives in a jurisdiction that mistakenly bases it's disposal laws on forms of silver that in fact never emerge from one's septic system into the general environment, that may be silly, but it's still the law and should be respected.

In those unfortunate cases, especially given the tiny volumes involved and low price point of bulk silver on the open market today, household recovery makes little sense and the hazardous waste drop-off is very likely the best, or least-worst, remaining option.

Ken

I use a silver recovery system , that is put in by the company that makes them. I pay nothing , but they take the sludge which must be profitable for them.

My county requires a septic system inspection every three years. I have been through three inspections and no problems have been reported, despite years of pouring my used chemistry down the drain. So I see no need to worry about it. Home darkrooms have been around for decades, all over the world. In all the photographic literature I have read, I have never seen any documented cases of septic systems being harmed by home-user photographic chemicals.

RalphLambrecht said:

So, it seems most people pour it down the drain,which is sad ,consideringthat so many communities have toxic waste drop-offs now.On the other hand, the quantities are small, the toxidity relatively lowand dilution is often the solution to polution. At the end f the day,everyone has to live with their choice but please consider a ocal drop-off point to keep our hobby from getting a bad reputation and the world beautiful for the next generation to photograph.many photographers have also been leading con sevationists for this very reason;AA to name one.

Click to expand...

yup,

Bob Carnie said:

I use a silver recovery system , that is put in by the company that makes them. I pay nothing , but they take the sludge which must be profitable for them.

Click to expand...

hi bob

the sludege isn't as profitable at the moment as it was a few years ago .. but soon ...
from what i was told buy someone trying to sell me
silver and gold coins to invest in, the spot price for silver has been artifically lowered
by jp morgan ... it had something to do with federal fines for trading silver futures without enough silver in their possession
( like a ponsi scheme ) so they are now hoarding silver ( some say 350 million oz )
and have exceeded what the hunt brothers did in the 1980s ...
i don't have a clue when, but according to the guy i spoke with, and industry experts,
the spot price is expected to soar sky high ...

Developer and stop go down the drain. I mix them to neutralize when they go bad at the same time, but otherwise just dilute.

The best solution I've found for fixer is to take it to a local photo finisher for silver recovery. Most are happy to have some free silver. The problem there is that traditional photofinishing is disappearing. When that happened to me, I took five-gallon jugs of used fixer to the local hazmat collection site. The idiots working there had no idea about recovering the silver, treated the used fix like some kind of toxic nerve gas and me like a terrorist because I wanted my jugs back. They just poured it into a drum and labeled it "photo chemistry." They had no idea of what they were dealing with and how to dispose of it optimally. They probably emitted a lot of carbon into the atmosphere incinerating it.

So, for small amounts of used fix, I just pour it down the drain now. In the future, since I'm building a new darkroom, I'll install some kind of silver recovery for the fix and then dispose of it down the drain after recovery.

As most of you already know, I replenish and re-use my selenium toner and haven't dumped any anywhere for years now. If you do dump selenium toners, the best practice is to exhaust the toning solution as much as possible when working, then toss a few old prints into the solution and let them scavenge more of the selenium for a few hours before dumping it. This ensures that the selenium levels are very low. The old Kodak recommendation of mixing selenium toner with hypo-clear and then dumping a perfectly-good solution when the capacity of the hypo-clear had been reached is irresponsible and uneconomical.

Best,

Doremus

Bring-in to free municipal hazardous-waste collection, that takes place 4x times a year in center of town..